Reviews of new releases: John Mayer's voice stands tried but true in trio

Knight Ridder Newspapers

Published Friday, December 09, 2005

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JOHN MAYER TRIO "Try!" (Columbia/Aware, Four Stars

John Mayer has proved that behind the pretty face and soft-rock romancing, there's a guy who makes his Stratocaster sing. Still, his forming a trio in the spirit of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsies smacks of blues-rock shuck-and-jive.

White-bread roots and all, Mayer shows he's a qualified scholar of the blues and its related forms with "Try!," a live set recorded earlier this year.

The world-class rhythm section he's enlisted -- bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan -- understands that the key to the trio dynamic is the space. They lean into it on the busy Hendrix-like opener "Who Did You Think I Was" and sit back in the deep pocket of "Vultures," giving Mayer's falsetto vocal room to smolder.

--Patrick Berkery

ENYA "Amarantine" (Reprise, Four Stars)

The Celtic priestess returns with another offering that hovers between pretty and pretentious. The best tracks, such as "Less Than a Pearl," are somber, orchestral anthems on which Enya uses her voice like an instrument. In other words, you can't make out a blessed word she's singing. On the more conventional songs, like the title track, she's a bland banshee. Other than a few moments of affecting lyricism, "Amarantine" is about as exciting as a recording of Gregorian chants.

Just three months after his stirring tribute to Delta gospel, "Souls' Chapel," an artistically rejuvenated Marty Stuart gets even more ambitious with this concept album about American Indians that explores historical and contemporary issues. Focusing on the Lakota Sioux and their South Dakota homeland of the title, and building the music on his familiar country-rock and country, Stuart lets his passion for this people shine through as he tells an absorbing, well-detailed story that's often heartbreaking but also inspirational.

The two outside songs on Kevin Gordon's third album (and first in five years) are by Southern soul man Eddie Hinton and Chicago blues icon Willie Dixon. Like his more celebrated fellow Nashvillian Buddy Miller, Gordon falls somewhere between, his music a rich stew of soul, blues, roots-rock and country. With originals spanning the roadhouse-raw swagger of "Watching the Sun Go Down" and the late-night resignation of "Heart's Not In It," however, Gordon again spins his own spellbinding tales.

--N.C.

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Jazz:

BYARD LANCASTER "A Heavenly Sweetness" (Isma'a, Four Stars)

The fiery saxophonist and flutist Byard Lancaster makes a surprisingly mellow and contemplative session. Instead of a full drum kit, Lancaster taps Roger Raspail for light percussion and congas, creating a light patter where crashes usually go. Electric pianist George Edouard Nouek and singer Anne Wirz also pitch in on this French-made recording, featuring lots of repeating chords or vamps.

Lancaster, who recorded famously in the 1960s with drummer Sonny Murray, goes for a generally sweet vibe. The original tunes also give him space to do some sincerely amorous rap.

--Karl Stark

JALEEL SHAW "Perspective" (Fresh Sound Records, Four Stars)

Where jazz is going, folks like alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw will be steering the way. A Philly lad who trained with the Clef Club's mighty Lovett Hines before stints at Boston's Berklee and the Manhattan School of Music, Shaw is a player of both tradition and the future. His tender wail on "Binky's Lament" alone, cowritten with guitarist Lage Lund, is worth buying the CD for.

The session is stocked up with great young talent, including pianist Mark Glasper, now on Blue Note, and drummer Johnathan Blake, son of master violinist John Blake.

Good choral music is being written these days, but mainstream exposure goes mainly to works by composers best known for instrumental music. The biggest news is Steve Reich's "You Are (Variations)." All the promise of his past vocal works ("The Desert Music" and "Tehillim") comes to fruition here. Texts are probingly spiritual, mostly about examining one's place in the world. Their musical settings sparkle with Reich's usual nervous rhythms and counterpoint, but heard in punchy, intoxicatingly layered manifestations.

As for "Cello Counterpoint" (the piece's disc-mate), rarely is such musical complexity used with so much communicative vitality.

On the Telarc disc, Christopher Theofanidis (best known for his orchestral work "Rainbow Body") treats the ancient poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi to some exotically perfumed choral writing and ecstatic proclamations that melt any time or cultural barriers between the 13th-century words and 21st-century ears.

Partly inspired by 9/11, David Del Tredici's "Paul Revere's Ride" is an accomplished but bewilderingly eccentric mixture of anthemlike melodies, galloping rhythms, and modern hysteria (police sirens and vocal writing suggesting angry cartoon characters). The SACD version is recommended: Theofanidis' more conversational word settings take on the illusion of voices whispering into your ear.